We talked with Graham & Amy from Walker Hearing Clinic at the Weir Clinic in the Bandon Primary Care Centre about their adult and child hearing services and how their West Cork business has grown over the last 13 years.
TELL me about Graham, yourself and your business?
Graham is our Director of Audiology – he manages our clinics and our audiology team. He also manages the students we accept from UCC for work placements who come to learn with us.
I’m the Operations Director and do just about everything else from running the office, managing suppliers, marketing and financial management. I also make sure our patients get whatever help they need.
How long have you been in business?
We initially began working with the people of West Cork in Bandon in 2010 & for the last couple of years we’ve been working as part of the Weir Clinic in the Bandon Primary Care Centre.
We have a Clinical Centre of Excellence in Cork on the grounds of CUH, and another clinic in Fermoy, servicing our North Cork patients.
What is your background/ qualifications?
Graham qualified from Aston University in Birmingham as a Clinical Audiologist and has worked in the public and private audiology sectors in Ireland.
I have a Masters from UCC in finance and have a lot of commercial experience.
What sets you apart from your competitors?
We established Walker Hearing Clinic because we noticed a gap in the market for patients. There used to be only two choices for patients with hearing loss. They could be seen publicly by the HSE or privately on the high street.
Both of these options had pros and cons.
The HSE audiologists are excellent but the waiting lists can be long and the hearing aids supplied by them are often large and cumbersome.
The suppliers on the high street (sometimes!) sell hearing aids that are better than the HSE offering but as the industry is not regulated, you do not know the qualifications of the person you are seeing and the prices can be high.
Not everybody with a hearing issue can be helped with a hearing aid and it’s important to trust your clinician.
Walker Hearing Clinic is a Cork owned and completely independent audiology and hearing aid clinic & gives patients another option that fills the gap I mentioned. We order state of the art hearing aids from the best manufacturers in the world. We employ qualified, clinical audiologists, who provide unrivalled levels of care for both adults and children.
In addition, as far as I know we are the only clinic that sees patients of all ages – we treat the whole family from babies to children to adults. We are the highest rated Cork audiology clinic on Google.
How has the business grown in the last number of years?
We have grown exponentially in recent years. There is a huge increase in the demand for our services because the number of people with hearing loss is higher than ever. Also, with more people continuing to work longer it has become necessary to keep working that you can hear well in large office spaces or other busy, noisy environments.
In recent years, due to a major study published by the Lancet Commission in 2020, there’s a lot of talk about a potential link between hearing loss and dementia. For audiologists, this link between hearing impairment and dementia is very significant because studies ultimately advocate for monitoring and protecting our hearing as we age.
What services do you offer?
We test hearing for patients of every age. You can make an appointment through your doctor or you can contact us directly.
We offer a wide range of discreet; top of the range hearing aids to suit your lifestyle. We remove impacted ear wax via micro suction. We provide hearing protection – custom and others. We can help with tinnitus management. We provide hearing tests & reports for employment purposes.
The clinic offers service to patients of all ages. (Photo: Andy Gibson)
Are there supports for clients to access your services?
Supports are available for patients but these are on a patient-by-patient basis and dependent upon PRSI contributions and whether or not you have health insurance. There is a fee for all of our services but call us if you have any questions and when you tell us a bit about your individual situation, we can advise you as to what entitlements you have.
There have been positive changes to the government grants in the latest budget so help is definitely available.
What should people do if they think they are losing their hearing?
Like anything, if you notice a change with your overall health, you want to get checked out straightaway by a qualified professional. If you notice anything different about your hearing or your ears just call us directly or get a referral from your GP.
What is the best part of your job?
Graham and I both agree that the best part of our job is helping people. We are proud of our services and we love to be able to help our community & it’s great working with children too.
There really is nothing more rewarding than seeing a patient hear well for the first time in a long time!
Graham and Amy Walker at their hearing clinic in Bandon. (Photo: Andy Gibson)
If there are any of the above services that you wish to avail of, please call Walker Hearing Clinic on 021-494-1375 to arrange an appointment or email: [email protected]
